Southern California -- this just in

What is your favorite L.A. hideout? Steve Lopez tells us his

April 15, 2010 | 2:06
pm

So where do you go in greater Los Angeles to escape the chaos?

I ask because readers seem to be searching for such a place. In response to my Wednesday column about Charles Fleming’s new book, “Secret Stairs, A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles,” I heard from quite a few people who want to join Fleming for his monthly guided journeys into the city’s past.

Others wanted to know where to buy the book. Try Skylight in Los Feliz or Amazon.com, and you can join a tour by contacting the author at misterfleming@aol.com.

And by the way, in my mention of William Faulkner’s work on “To Have and Have Not” in that column, I should have noted that Faulkner’s contribution was only on the screenplay. Ernest Hemingway, as countless readers eagerly pointed out, wrote the novel.

As for escapes, I lived on the Westside in the 1990s and used to love hiking Topanga State Park. This week, I walked the base of the San Gabriel Mountains near Devil’s Gate on Monday, and on Wednesday morning before work, I was in the water in Santa Monica, where five dolphins kept drifting lazily by, coming within 15 yards or so.

My favorite escape, though, is to Two Harbors, the tiny, wave-splashed village on the quiet side of Catalina.
At the risk of spoiling your own sense of tranquillity, do any brave souls out there care to talk about where you go to clear your head?